arch. Also 5 femyne, femynye, 6 femynie. [a. OF. feminie, f. L. fēmina woman.] Womankind; a ‘set’ of women, esp. the Amazons; also the country of the Amazons.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Knt.’s T., 8. He conquered all the regne of Feminie.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 6669. The qwene of femyne þat freike so faithfully louyt.
c. 1430. Pilgr. Lyf Manhode, II. xcix. (1869), 111. I wot neuere whether i be in femynye, ther wommen hauen the lordship.
1561. Schole-house of Women, 9, in Hazl., E. P. P., IV. 106.
| A foole of late contriued a boke, | |
| And all in praise of the femynie. |
1692. Coles, Feminie, the women’s country.
1822. Byron, Werner, IV. i.
| You bid me … look into | |
| The eyes of feminie. |
1834. Fraser’s Mag., IX., June, 639. The dingy feminie who cry their brooms.
1836. M. J. Chapman, Hebrew Idyls, in Fraser’s Mag., XIV., July, 22.
| At the good deeds of feminie let no man | |
| With vain conceit and fastuous humour swelling, | |
| Sneer idly. |
